Prior to the present invention, when there was a requirement to connect additional assemblies, such as cables, to the rear of a backplane, a shroud was placed over the backplane and the assembly was plugged into the shroud. This technique works well until a change to the backplane must be implemented. Such changes generally are applied through the addition of wires on the backplane. If the additional wires need access to the pins under the shroud, the shroud is removed, the wires are added, and the shroud is replaced.
The shroud must have standoffs that provide mechanical support while keeping a constant distance between the backplane and the shroud. The shroud may need additional mechanical support especially where a cable plugs into the shroud. However, adding additional pre-molded supports require the removal of a row of pins to make room for the supports. Additionally, if the cabling arrangement changed such that mechanical support was needed in a different place, the pre-molded supports could not be moved, and a new shroud would be required. Finally, with large systems containing several cabling arrangements, a unique shroud might be required for each such cabling arrangement.
Therefore, it is the objective of the present invention to provide a movable shroud standoff that allows the underlying pins to remain in place.